Alex Rodriguez has decided to eliminate his Yuri problem.
Rodriguez has decided to bar his cousin, Yuri Sucart, from essentially serving as his go-fer on the road any longer, a source close to the slugger told The Post. This is a reaction to the uproar stirred when it became public knowledge Sucart had been with Rodriguez during the Yankees’ last road trip.
When asked if this were true, Rodriguez only would say, “I am handling it.”
Major League Baseball has an edict in place, banning Sucart from all areas controlled by it or a team, such as clubhouses and club charters. MLB took that step after it was revealed in spring training 2009 that Sucart had been traveling to the Dominican to procure performance-enhancing drugs for Rodriguez during the 2001-03 period he has acknowledged using steroids.
Nevertheless, Sucart still had made multiple road trips with Rodriguez — not the Yankees — footing the bill for travel and accommodations. Sucart had been spotted in a team hotel on the Yankees’ recent West Coast trip, triggering an investigation by MLB. The Commissioners Office exonerated Rodriguez of wrongdoing, saying it could not legislate where Sucart could be beyond MLB- and team-operated areas.
Initially, Rodriguez remained defiant, saying Sucart was family and he would not distance himself from family. But as he thought about it more, the source said, he recognized having Sucart on the road fueled the wrong impression in a period when Rodriguez has been more mindful of his reputation.
Again, Rodriguez did not want to directly talk about the issue, but did say, “I think I have done a nice job the last three years in eliminating distractions. I think in the last three years I have done a good job of keeping the focus on the field. That is the plan, and that plan is going to continue.”
Since his May 2009 return from hip surgery, Rodriguez had successfully re-doubled his efforts to say less, let his skills mainly talk for him and concentrate on trying to be a better teammate. But the Yuri situation is part of the messiest period for Rodriguez since then. There also was a recent story that Rodriguez remained under investigation for his ties to Dr. Anthony Galea, who is under federal indictment on five counts of distributing illegal performance enhancers.
Rodriguez has steadfastly claimed he saw Galea only post-surgery in 2009 and never received illegal performance enhancers. Friends of Rodriguez have been upset he has been tied to Galea more than other high-profile athletes who sought the controversial doctor’s care, such as Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
Such is life as A-Rod. His reckless past always will leave him an eye blink from needing damage control, despite a pretty sustained run now of sprucing a soiled reputation.
Of course, it would be helping Rodriguez’s cause in changing the subject if he were excelling on the field. His overall numbers are not horrible. But he looked so great during the spring and through the first three weeks of the season — both physically and production-wise — that he was conjuring comparisons to his MVP years. He hit a mammoth homer and an RBI double last night in the Yankees’ 11-7 victory over the Indians, and is hitting .280 with 12 homers and 36 RBIs. Fine for a very good player. For Rodriguez, however, the numbers are rather mundane, especially since he did so much of his damage in the opening three weeks.
“I have been having trouble finding my consistency day in, day out,” Rodriguez said.
Nevertheless, he stated confidently that he would, and hitting coach Kevin Long guaranteed Rodriguez would be in the familiar realm of 30-40 homers and 110-plus RBIs by season’s end.
The Yankees hunger for that A-Rod brilliance. The pitching staff is damaged and dubious, which puts a great burden on the offense to outscore the mistakes. Except the offense has been loaded with dead spots, accentuating the need for the two-through-five of Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Rodriguez and Robinson Cano to excel.
“There is no question my team needs me to be productive,” Rodriguez said. “It is about driving in runs, mainly big runs. When I swing well, I think the team feeds off of that and it lessens the load elsewhere.”
When A-Rod is swinging well, fewer people seem to care about where his
cousin is.
joel.sherman@nypost.com